Watching the World Cup at work? On paper, it’s risky (but in reality not so much) – Liberation

According to the Labor Code, it is forbidden to “engage freely in personal occupations” when working. In reality, it is above all a matter of common sense and safety.

We recognize from the outset that the following does not apply to the next match of the Blues, against Poland, since the round of 16 is scheduled for a Sunday and most of you will therefore have plenty of time to watch it in the background of a couch on a day off. But what about the rest of the competition in Qatar taking place during working days and hours? What is the risk of an employee who watches a football match during his time and place of work?

Schematically, the answer could be: “it’s a bit like everything, there is the principle and the reality”. On paper, you are at fault if you follow Kylian Mbappé’s accelerations on your computer screen, but in reality, there is a tolerance. Finally, except when security is at stake. A little decryption of things to know before pressing the remote control with Christophe Noël, a lawyer specializing in labor law.

“The Labor Code does not provide for all the possible and imaginable faults of an employeesmiled the lawyer. But the employee is supposed to work during his working time and not engage in private activities”. Article L3121-1 provides that “the duration of actual work is the time during which the employee is at the disposal of the employer and complies with his directives without being able to freely attend to personal occupations”. “The rule is therefore that it always constitutes a fault: by watching a match, the employee does not respect his obligation of loyalty since he does not do what is asked of him” by the employer, continues the lawyer, questioned by AFP.

“Dismissing an employee for watching a match is a bit of a coffee”

Judges have already had to decide this type of case. In some cases, this was considered to justify dismissal; in others, the judges considered that the sanction had to be proportionate to the fault and to the damage to the company. The cases examined in court range from an employee in a warehouse surprised by surveillance videos while watching a match to… an airline pilot having followed a part of the match on the laptop.

In disciplinary matters, there are “a cardinal principle in labor law, of proportionality of the sanction in relation to the seriousness of the fault”underlines the lawyer: “There are degrees between reprimand, oral or written warning, layoff and even dismissal. Dismissing an employee for watching a match is a bit of a coffee.

Among the cases of dismissal, Christophe Noël cites employees in charge of security, such as site guards, security guards or employees in charge of video surveillance, who “suddenly, are no longer at what they do”.

Remains a principle of reality. Given the audience figures for this World Cup for two weeks, when you have 12 million French people in front of their screens at 4 p.m., it’s mathematical, some are at work and supposed to be working. “There is a tolerance and the companies proceed with intelligencegreets the lawyer. In general, when there is a football match during office hours, it is customary, when the employee is not assigned to a sensitive position, to be able to watch it. And it’s going pretty well.”